What did you do to us Steve Jobs?

Whenever Apple first introduced the IPhone, it was seen as the next step in technology but simply due to its overpriced price tag and the similar function to preexisting phones I didn’t think it would really catch on. Obviously, everyone was talking about it because it was the new big thing but you rarely saw someone with one. I personally had no desire to spend such a large sum of money for something that did what my phone could do too. However, I didn’t realize how much better the IPhone did those things compared to my current phone and that’s what everyone realized as well.

            Not too much longer after the original launch, the next generation of IPhones were introduced and these were supposed to be even better than the last and for a more affordable price. This was the beginning of the IPhone take over. At this point, there were still other smartphones out there in use such as Blackberry, but it wasn’t long before even the infamous Blackberry was ran out of town by the IPhone. The Blackberry wasn’t a bad phone, I actually had one for a few years before giving in to the IPhone craze. It was simply a matter of the IPhone being faster and more user friendly than the competing smartphones.

            Apple was determined to stay on top of the smartphone world and began releasing a newer version of the IPhone every year. Each year the newer generation of IPhones is supposedly better than the last with a new look for both the exterior and the general layout of the phones interface. Every year one of the big topics is the new IPhone and how much better it is. However, no matter what version of the IPhone that you have, everyone is using it for the same thing, the internet.

            Whenever I use my IPhone I’m either listening to music, talking to someone via text or call, or I’m simply surfing the internet. Whenever I’m out in public, like on campus for example, all that’s visible is a sea of people walking to their desired destination but completely oblivious to that which is around them. Every single person can be seen looking toward the ground at their phones and completely entranced by whatever it is on their screen at the time. I’ve even personally witnessed this being carried out by young children at the restaurant I work at. They just mindlessly stare at the screen running into anything and everything in their way. This isn’t just the case for children either, even the college students mentioned earlier have been seen walking into tree, light posts and other people due to the unbreakable commitment they have to whatever is on their screen. I’ve even watched a guy walk through a construction site, ignoring the big orange cones and signs, and walk straight through a patch of wet cement.

            This state of oblivion is what will ultimately lead to the downfall of our society. Maybe that was a bit drastic, but you get the point. I’d like to think that I’m very conscious of the world around me but unfortunately I do find myself falling into this trance at times and that’s what scares me. Due to this trend, people are not only less aware, but face-to-face communication is decreasing drastically due to the implications of IPhones and the internet. This annoyance will only grow as newer and better smartphones are released and it’s truly too late to change the course in which our world is taking in regards communications. I may not like the latent functions that the IPhone is having on our society but I can never truly say that the IPhone as a whole is the devil because I love it and probably couldn’t live without it and maybe that’s the key. Maybe Steve Jobs had some ulterior motive like taking over the world via IPhone? The world will never know.